The University of Hawai'i's rebuilding men's basketball team is bracing for what is expected to be the heaviest penalty of the three UH sports sanctioned when the NCAA today announces Academic Progress Rates for 2006-07 school year.

The Rainbow Warriors could lose two scholarships — 15 percent of the maximum number of 13 they are permitted to grant — in men's basketball, according to people familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak on the issue.

The NCAA has notified member schools of the report's contents but UH officials and coaches have declined comment pending the release of the report.

UH football could lose one scholarship from its allowable limit of 85, and baseball is expected to be docked the equivalent of half a grant in aid from its 11.7. Baseball is an equivalency sport, allowed to award portions of a scholarship.

Meanwhile, as many as five of UH's 19 teams — expected to be women's volleyball, women's basketball, track, indoor track and cross country — could be commended for exemplary standing. Last year UH had two exemplary teams, softball and women's volleyball.

The APR measures academic eligibility retention and graduation, penalizing programs that lag in those areas. Each scholarship athlete on a team can generally earn two APR points per semester for staying at a school and remaining eligible. The NCAA has listed a baseline APR of 925 for schools, which would mean a 50-percent graduation rate, according to the NCAA. Members that fall below a 925 score face penalties.

The loss of two scholarships in one year is the most severe penalty in men's basketball and, for the 'Bows, would come at a time when head coach Bob Nash is attempting to rebuild a program that hasn't been to either the NCAA Tournament or National Invitation Tournament in four years.

Moreover, UH lost seven seniors from a team that went 11-17. Nash filled six slots with recruits in April but would have to relinquish another scholarship to meet the limitations of the sanctions.

UH football has been sanctioned in each of the two previous years, losing five scholarships in 2006 and one last year. Baseball lost 1.17, the maximum in its sport, two years ago but was spared additional penalties last year due to squad-size considerations.

Football is also coming off a year in which it had its most scholar-athletes (32) in school history and, like baseball, has been making annual progress in firming up its APR numbers.

UH won't be the only school in the nine-member Western Athletic Conference sanctioned, according to WAC Commissioner Karl Benson. "We are going to be penalized, but I can't be specific at this time," Benson said from Phoenix, where the conference wrapped up spring meetings yesterday.

"Some had a long ways to go and it isn't always possible to do it in one, two, three years. It does require time," Benson said. "However, I'm confident that our schools have plans in place to rectify" the situations.